Photo by Kaleb Becker on Unsplash
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is commending a Missouri school district for its exemplary response to an FFRF letter about a school-sponsored prayer broadcast at a recent football game.
FFRF contacted the Nevada R-V School District in Missouri after learning that the school allowed the student body president to deliver a Christian prayer over the loudspeaker before a varsity football game on Sept. 11. The employee who informed the state/church watchdog about the unconstitutional broadcast said the prayer made them uncomfortable and expressed particular concern for students who may not feel empowered to speak up when religion is promoted at a school event.
The complainant, who is not Christian, stressed that their concern was not with students praying privately or expressing their own religious beliefs. “When a microphone is handed over to force an entire stadium into prayer, that is where things become blurred,” the employee told FFRF.
FFRF stepped up to clarify the district’s responsibility to keep school events free from religious influence.
“School officials may not invite a student, clergy member, teacher, faculty member or anyone else to give any type of prayer, invocation, benediction or sermon at public school-sponsored events, nor may they give a prayer themselves,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to District Superintendent Tyson Beshore.
Here, the district had allowed the student body president to lead all attendees, including students, in a Christian prayer over a microphone before the football game. By having school-sponsored prayer at official school events, the district needlessly marginalized non-Christian students, including atheists, agnostics and members of minority faiths. As much as 38 percent of the American population is non-Christian, including the almost 30 percent that is nonreligious. More than half of Generation Z members (those born after 1996) are non-Christian, including 43 percent who are nonreligious.
The district’s response was swift and unequivocal.
Beshore apologized for the incident and explained that the senior class president had been invited to speak but that administrators had not reviewed the student’s remarks beforehand.
More importantly, the district immediately put safeguards in place to prevent a recurrence. Going forward, students will not be permitted to address school audiences over a microphone without administrators first reviewing their planned remarks, and an administrator will be present when students speak.
Beshore emphasized that in his 29 years with the district, he had never encountered another incident like this. “I can promise you it will never happen again,” he wrote.
FFRF applauds the district and Beshore for taking the complaint seriously, acknowledging what went wrong and adopting a concrete solution to protect students. The Supreme Court formally ruled student-led prayer or other prayer broadcast at school events, including football games, unconstitutional 26 years ago.
“This is exactly how school officials should respond when a constitutional concern is brought to their attention,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The district listened, recognized the problem and immediately took steps to protect every student going forward. We greatly appreciate Superintendent Beshore’s forthright and constructive response.”
For the employee who contacted FFRF, the resolution means that future students attending Nevada R-V athletic events will not have to choose between participating in a school-facilitated religious exercise and visibly separating themselves from their classmates and community.
That distinction is especially important in public schools, where students come from families representing a wide range of religious and nonreligious perspectives. Students remain free to pray individually or with one another, but the school itself must not place its microphone, authority or imprimatur behind a religious exercise.
FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence, who wrote to the district on behalf of the complainant, says the outcome demonstrates why speaking up matters.
“Our complainant saw something that made them concerned for students who might not feel comfortable objecting themselves, and they had the courage to raise that concern,” Lawrence says. “Because they spoke up and because district officials responded so responsibly, students will now be able to attend school events knowing that the school will respect their freedom of conscience.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 40,000 members across the country, including hundreds of members in Missouri, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
